Documentary

Documentary: http://vimeo.com/4698383 media type="custom" key="7222871"
 * //Life After Diamonds//** is a documentary about the dying diamond industry in Sierra Leone. Filmed in 2009, **//Life After Diamonds//** was directed by Sheyrle Carson and the entire documentary took place in Sierra Leone. Sheyrle Carson, known for her other documentaries such as //Kink// and //Internationally Speaking//, along with Larissa Stendie, the producer of **//Life After Diamonds//**, travelled to Sierra Leone and assisted with the reclamation of land and the lending of equipment to help with the labour.

The documentary shows how the discovery of natural resources may actually hurt a country and people, like it did to Sierra Leone. The country once thrived and was self sufficient when the people worked as agricultural farmers, but when they discovered their lands natural resource, diamonds in the 1930's, they quickly abandoned agriculture and moved forward into an unpredictable but wealthy trade. Their once fertile land was destroyed as they stripped the land in search of diamonds. Rice fields were quickly replaced with open pits filled with water. After the pits were depleted of their diamonds, they were abandoned and left there as a visual and physical reminder of the quest for diamonds. The abandoned pits are left unclaimed and "children will drown, and mosquitoes will breed from there different illnesses and the water will become polluted" says Rebecca Kamara, part of the Campaign for Just Mining. The people of Sierra Leone became dependant on imported food from places such as Asia, Holland, and the United States. Throughout the documentary the struggle between agriculture and mining was evident. Now that the diamonds are becoming scarce and of lower quality, they are no longer a reliable source of income. The people of Sierra Leone are trying to switch to agriculture, from which their lands once thrived. The people would fill in the pits with dirt, and later use the fertalized soil to grow rice, which used to be Sierra Leone's main income, before many of the people were taken to the United States as slaves and other places, such as Asia, started producing subsidized food. With much work and dedication, Sierra Leone has a chance to change things for themselves, and rebuild their once abundant country. The documentary, which was filmed in 2009 in Sierra Leone, mostly included interviews with workers and people assisting in the project.

There were many different people included in the production of **//Life After Diamonds//**. Many of the people were from Sierra Leone and worked in the diamond industry. They relayed how difficult life was, and how they could barely feed themselves off the little diamonds that they found. "Sometimes I'll work and I'll just get a small diamond, sell it and have just enough to feed myself" one of the workers recalls. Most of the workers were middle aged, and many stated how they had been working in the diamond industry for decades, many of them finding hardly any diamonds. "I have looked for diamonds for a good fifteen years. Never get nothing yet. Still struggling" recalls another man in the documentary. They also showed other people who were trying to help the people of Sierra Leone with reclaiming land and with the move to agriculture. The producer of //**Life After Diamonds**//, Larissa Stendie stated how she was going to "meet with one of the paramount chiefs because he has access to a bulldozer that one of the mining companies has lent him..." a bulldozer, which they later were granted permission to use, greatly helped the transformation of the land into suitable land for agriculture. Jane Baxter, a journalist and author of //Dust From Our Eyes// was also interviewed and she explained how "Sierra Leone used to be a net exporter of food. The slaves who were taken from Sierra Leone were taken because they were such experts in rice cultivation. Sierra Leone is called the rice coast..."

There are many messages being portrayed in **//Life After Diamonds//**, one of them being that the people there are really struggling. "Sierra Leone is consistently rated lowest on the United Nation's Human Development Index with most people living on under a dollar a day"- 2:23. Many people there and in other countries in Africa are starving and are either unemployed or barely paid enough to feed themselves. This documentary shows that things can be done, changed for the better. The people of Sierra Leone who had previously relied on the diamond industry have changed their perspectives and are now trying a different tactic: agriculture.

Overall, I thought the documentary was extremely well made. It was unbiase d y et educational and informative, and portrayed a clear and enlightening message: people are struggling. I think one of the main purposes of the documentary was to open people's eyes; to show them what it's like living in a developing country, where everyday you struggle to get just enough money to feed yourself. If so, it worked. After seeing **//Life After Diamonds//**, I wanted to do something; to help. It also showed me that even though the people were poor, they still had hope. When someone told them that if they stopped doing what they had been practicing their whole lives and changed, that they could make more money and have better lives, they did. It also showed me that other people care enough to travel to a different part of the world and help out the people of Sierra Leone, because they couldn't done it without those other people. **//Life After Diamonds//** was created to spread a message, and it did so in a way that it captured people's attention without boring them. Instead of ending on a bad note, it changed positively near the end, so the viewers were left smiling knowing that the people of Sierra Leone were being helped into creating better lives for themselves.

Excellent review Nicole. I especially like the inclusion of quotes taken directly from the documentary. You capture the main issues in the film express your opinion in an organized and intellectual manner.

24/24

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